Pubdate: Tue, 25 May 2004 Source: Ledger, The (FL) Copyright: 2004 The Ledger Contact: http://www.theledger.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/795 Author: Robert Batey Note: Robert Batey is a professor of criminal law at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport and a local coordinator in St. Petersburg for the national organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums. Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/find?199 (Mandatory Minimum Sentencing) TOUGH SENTENCES DO LITTLE TO CUT CRIME At a recent televised news conference, Gov. Bush touted the latest crime figures in Florida, which showed a decline for the 12th year in a row. Eager to gain political advantage from this happy news, the governor said the drop was because of tougher sentencing laws adopted during his administration. Not surprisingly, Bush's statement tells only part of the story. Crime rates are down all over the country and have been going down for several years. In Florida, the decline in the crime rate began seven years before Gov. Bush took office and well before there was any serious toughening of Florida's sentencing laws. This strongly suggests that there were other reasons for the decline. The most widely accepted explanation for the decline in crime rates has to do with demographics. Over the past 20 or more years, the median age of the American population has pushed steadily upward. It's not just that we're all getting older, but the country as a whole is getting older too. That means that young males are a smaller proportion of the society than they used to be. This affects the crime rate because young males commit the greatest number of crimes. So as the percentage of young males in the society has gone down, the crime rate has gone down. For politicians, the trouble with this explanation is that there is no way to take credit for demographic changes -- they happen without our elected officials doing anything. So politicians like the governor try to give all the credit to something they can claim, like tougher sentencing laws. The truth, however, is that crime would have declined in Florida and throughout the nation without them. Of course, tougher sentencing laws have made some slight contribution to the decline in crime. But consider their cost: Nationally we imprison more than 2 million people, almost five times the number we incarcerated just 25 years ago. Prison budgets have ballooned everywhere, as expenditures for services such as schools and health care have dwindled. Think of the unmet needs the Florida Legislature could address with the money saved by cutting our prison population by 20 percent. And if properly administered, even this substantial reduction would have little or no effect on Florida's crime rate. Besides the economic cost, there is the human cost of draconian sentencing laws. Every day, we read newspaper stories about people given excessive sentences. Among the most recent was the man in chronic pain who got a 25-year mandatory minimum sentence for copying a prescription. There was also the boy who burglarized a home and got a mandatory 10 years because he happened to steal a gun. And soon we will read about the parent who tragically left a gun where a child found it; under Florida's sentencing guidelines his sentence will be 61/2 to 81/2 years. These people deserve punishment -- but not outlandish sentences such as these. And such sentences do not affect just the criminals. For every person given an excessive sentence, there is at least one innocent spouse, child, parent or loved one whose world is turned upside down. These innocent victims also suffer from excessive sentencing. We can all be happy that the nation's demographics have driven down the crime rate. But we should not allow politicians to take credit for this development. The tougher sentencing laws they have championed have done little to lower crime, and they have cost us dearly both in economic and human terms. We need sensible sentencing laws, not politicians' sound bites. Robert Batey is a professor of criminal law at Stetson University College of Law in Gulfport and a local coordinator in St. Petersburg for the national organization Families Against Mandatory Minimums. - --- MAP posted-by: Jo-D